


liquid language

by renlybaratheon



Series: prompts from tumblr [3]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Established Relationship, Ficlet, Fluff, M/M, drunk ronan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-20
Updated: 2016-09-20
Packaged: 2018-08-16 06:23:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8090986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renlybaratheon/pseuds/renlybaratheon
Summary: Adam sighed. “How much did he drink?” he asked. Already he could tell he wasn’t going to finish packing tonight, and he started to move the last of his clothes off the bed and out of the way for when Ronan likely staggered in here drunk later."Surprisingly not that much,” said Gansey. Adam couldn’t tell if he was covering for Ronan or Ronan’s tolerance level wasn’t what it used to be. While it had been a while since he last drank copious amounts of alcohol, he was still Ronan. Drinking for him was never really a casual thing, it was reserved for when he was upset.“I’m on my way.”(prompt: things you said when you were drunk)





	

Adam was still unpacking his things after having moved in about a week ago, alone at the Barns with Opal as Ronan was out with Gansey doing lord knows what together. Adam was invited as well, but he wasn’t feeling like going out tonight so he decided to stay behind. It was for the best, really. He got to spend some quality time with Opal, who recently was introduced to a handheld video game device Matthew bought her. If he listened hard enough he could hear her playing it on full volume downstairs as he unpacked his clothes in the drawers of Ronan’s dresser.  _Their_  dresser.

It was still weird, being able to call these things  _theirs_. To share a room, a bed, a whole house. It was only for the summer, and then he was moving again into the dorms at college, but the Barns were partially his now. He could say that and not feel a little false when he did. Because he was coming back, because he was completely in this. Just thinking about it, as he nudged Ronan’s oddly large collection of black tees out of the way, was enough to send his stomach into flips.

After finishing with the drawers and moving onto the closet Adam’s phone started to buzz in his back pocket, a phone call from Gansey. It was only a little after eleven and Adam didn’t expect Ronan home well until after he and Opal were asleep, so it was strange to be getting a phone call.

“Gansey, what’s up?” he asked, tucking the phone between his chin and shoulder as he started hanging up his good suit next to Ronan’s. He could hear music in the background but it was softened, like he was outside somewhere. Beneath that he could also hear Ronan’s laugh, distinct and vibrant. At least he was having fun.

“Uh, it’s Ronan—“ Gansey didn’t sound too delighted, though. “He’s, uh, how do I put this—?”

“I’m on top of the world!” Ronan howled in the background of the call. He then literally howled, and Adam had to pull his phone from his ear the sound was piercing. Probably howled directly into Gansey’s cell. He sounded drunk. “Fuck you! Hey, no, those are  _my_  car keys, Dick. Give them  _back_. Hey, hey, is that Sargent? Sargent, your boyfriend is trying to steal my car. Help me kick his ass! Wha- hey.”

Adam sighed. “How much did he drink?” he asked. Already he could tell he wasn’t going to finish packing tonight, and he started to move the last of his clothes off the bed and out of the way for when Ronan likely staggered in here drunk later.

"Surprisingly not that much,” said Gansey. Adam couldn’t tell if he was covering for Ronan or Ronan’s tolerance level wasn’t what it used to be. While it had been a while since he last drank copious amounts of alcohol, he was still Ronan. Drinking for him was never really a casual thing, it was reserved for when he was upset.

“I’m on my way.”

As he started searching for Opal throughout the house, as well as his keys and wallet, Gansey continued to chatter in his ear. "Do you think it’s appropriate leaving a child alone in the house?”

"You called me, remember, Gansey?”

“Right. Yes. Sorry. Sorry sorry.”

Opal was sitting in the living room on the sofa, her legs swinging off the edge, enraptured by the game in her hands. It was beeping at her, screen lighting up her face, until she noticed Adam walk in.

“Five more minutes!” She tucked the game under her arm, wise to the knowledge she was up far past her bedtime.

"I have to go pick up Ronan,” he said, the long day starting to weigh on him. “Grab your headphones. You can play in the car.”

Her face lit up so fast.

“But once we’re back home it’s straight to bed with you,” he added, to her utter dismay. She was so much like Ronan sometimes it was spooky, the way she gave him a look that said so much and showed lack of respect for his authority. In a cuter way, though, than when Ronan did it. “I mean it, Opal. Your eyes are probably tired from staring at that screen all day.”

“They’re fine,” she said.

“Mm. Yeah, okay sure.” He didn’t want to argue with an eight year old dream girl at eleven at night, so he instead grabbed Opal’s headphones, along with his keys and wallet. “Come on.”

Ronan and Gansey were nearby Nino’s, at a bar not too far from it. They probably started at Nino’s and then the night escalated from there for whatever reason. When he pulled his tri-colored car in next to the Pig he could see Ronan’s movements were greatly exaggerated and not all that stable.

Adam unbuckled himself and stepped out of the car enough to look over the hood toward Ronan.

“Lynch,” he called out.

Ronan whipped his head round so fast Adam thought it should’ve knocked him over, but he remained standing, only staggering a step.

“Adam!” he said with utmost glee. A grin was carved on his face, full and handsome. At once he bounced off the pavement and started rushing toward Adam as much as he could with the noodles for legs he suddenly acquired. He reached round to Adam’s side of the car and sloppily draped his arms over his shoulders, going in for a kiss that Adam gently rejected.

“Drunk kisses are a no,” he said turning his head so Ronan managed to only snag his cheek before he pulled him off.

“What’s the fun in that?”

“I prefer you sober, Ronan,” and Adam gently guided him around to the passenger side of the car. In he helped him to his seat, making sure not to let him hit his head, and from there he helped him with his seatbelt.

“Mm, you’re so good to me,” Ronan slurred, and he pulled Adam’s hand up to kiss it. Adam felt aware of Gansey watching all this, as he brushed his lips on the curves of Adam’s knuckles and then closed his eyes a little winded, head tilting back against the seat’s headrest. “My Adam.”

He wanted to ask Gansey a dozen questions about what happened, but he also just wanted to get Ronan and Opal home and to bed.

“Gansey.” Adam did a two finger solute toward him, and Gansey peeled himself off the side of his car.

“I was going to warn he’s in a bit of a mood,” he started, “but clearly that’s not true anymore…”

“He’s always in ‘a bit of a mood’,” Adam jested, looking affectionately at Ronan who jerked his head up when he must have realized he was being talked about.

“Are you talking about me?”

“Kerah, look at my game!” Opal shouted from the backseat. She smoothly turned his attention away from Adam and Gansey, enveloping him in the bright lights and sounds of her game.

“Got your hands full, don’t you?” Gansey meant for it to be teasing but Adam didn’t find any reason to tease. This was everything he could have wanted, Opal and Ronan everything to him. He tenderly touched at Ronan’s cheek before shutting his door, moving to the other side back into the driver’s seat.

“I don’t mind,” he said.

On the drive home Ronan was muttering nonsense against his shoulder, half conscious and clawing a tiny bit at Adam’s shirt. Opal was still distracted in the backseat, ignoring the both of them, headphones in and eyes glued to her screen. There had to be a better option for distraction for kids than video games, Adam thought, but tonight wasn’t the night for that. Tonight Ronan was still dramatically drunk, making it very difficult to drive and stay focused.

“Adam….” The boy said his name so softly, it rolling off his tongue strangely with his slurs. His eyes were cast down as he mumbled it again into Adam’s shirtsleeve. “Adam…. Adam’s apple. Adamant. Adamentium. A damn. A damsel.” He scrunched his nose and sat straight. “No, that one doesn’t work.”

Adam snickered lowly, picking up speed to get them to the Barns that much faster. “I’ve never seen you like this before,” he noted.

Ronan smiled cheerily, sloppy in its presentation. “You’ve seen me drunk before, Parrish,” he said, glancing over at Adam with a look glaringly clear, full of want. Gently, he turned Ronan’s face away to look elsewhere. That was not happening tonight.

“Not like this,” he said. “This is happy drunk.”

“I’m happy. You make me happy.”

Every time either of them said that, Adam felt a jolt of energy run through him. He gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, remembering he was driving and Ronan was drunk and kissing him like this was inappropriate. Kissing him in a moving car was unsafe. But he was happy, too, and he shared an affectionate smile with Ronan to show it.

“Opal,” and Ronan was turning his head toward her at the back, but she wasn’t paying attention. “Brat, look at me. Hey.” Finally she looked up at him, pausing the game and taking out one earbud. Truly Ronan’s mini, the way she gave him an uninterested look. “I read somewhere you can talk to me about anything.”

She said nothing and looked back down at her game, returning the bud into her ear. Her reaction was not what Ronan wanted, clearly, pouting like a child on the verge of a tantrum. To this, he then grunted something unintelligible under his breath and started playing with the seatbelt, yanking on it at all odd angles. He sat further up and it became apparent he was trying to unbuckle himself.

“What are you doing that for?” Adam asked, reaching out with one arm to try to pause his hands. His car was such an old thing it didn’t have a button to press for childproofing the doors, and he was forced to try to keep on the right side of the road while also holding onto Ronan’s arms.

“I have to pee,” Ronan protested.

“We’ll be home in twenty minutes,” said Adam. He was getting agitated. “Can’t you wait?”

“I have to go  _now_ ,” and Ronan managed to get his seatbelt unbuckled. It flung back and up into the slot and he was free, pulling from Adam’s hands to grab for the door.

“Ronan, don’t you fucking—“

There was hardly any time between Ronan opening the door and Adam managing to jerk the car to a screeching halt, barely managing to get off onto the side of the road in time to watch Ronan roll out like his legs had given up on him. Adam’s heart was racing, anger flaming inside him as he turned the car off and removed his own seatbelt.

“Opal, stay in the car,” he said. She didn’t even bother to look up, still enraptured by her video game.

Outside the car he could see Ronan peeling himself off the ground, uninjured but in a strange hurry to do whatever his drunk mind was telling him to. His attention pulled him forward, and Adam followed after.

“Lynch, where are you going?” he said as he shut the car door behind him.

“To pee,” said Ronan, as if it were that simple. As if this was normal behavior for someone who had to pee desperately.

“I see that,” said Adam, maintaining a short distance between them. Where Adam had pulled over was a field of dead grass, waist high and dangerous to wander through in the pitch black of night, but here Ronan was doing exactly that. He was getting pretty far from the car, the headlights still on. “Why so far away?” he called out to Ronan, who wheeled round to look back at him with a wave towards the car.

“I don’t want Opal to see me pee,” he said, like it was the obvious answer.

“She —“ He followed his gaze to see the tiny light illuminating Opal in the distance, and when he turned back Ronan was walking off again, further into the dark. “Lynch, get back in the car.”

“Mmm, no.”

“Lynch, come back  _please_.”

Ronan skipped ahead a few more steps. “Chase me first,” he said, and Adam rolled his eyes.

“This isn’t funny,” he said, and Ronan laughed anyway. “I’ll leave you out here,” he said, but they both knew he was lying. “I have work in the morning and it’s late and I do not want to have to corral you into the car like a sheepdog.”

Ronan would not stop walking, and finally Adam had it and he stopped following him.

“I  _swear to god_ , if you don’t come back with me  _right now_ —“

“You’re hot when you’re angry.”

Adam groaned, unnerved. “You did not just say that.” His body reacted to Ronan’s words anyway, the stress of this situation easing a little in his shoulders. He was so far gone with this boy it was impossible to think of a time before where he didn’t feel this way. Still, the irritation of handling him drunk and trying to get him to stand still for  _one second_  was setting him on edge and pushing him to his limits.

“Adam, look at the stars.” There was a softness to Ronan’s voice, as he tilted his head up to gaze at the blanket of lights in the sky. Tonight they bloomed brightly in an otherwise unlit sky, the moon new and dark. When Adam was gazing at them, Ronan had snuck a little closer, looking at him and then looking at the sky again when Adam caught him staring.

“You’re lucky you’re cute,” he grumbled.

Ronan looked at him again, brow risen. “You think I’m cute.“

Adam stifled the desire to roll his eyes. “We’re dating,” he said. “It’s assumed I think you’re cute.”

Something in this was found to be humorous, and Ronan smirked as if what Adam said should be seen as embarrassing. His eyes drifted upward to the stars once more and he pointed to them with one hand, the other slipping into Adam’s, fingers splitting apart to allow space for his.

“These are the same stars everyone sees,” he said, in true wonder. "All around the world. In Guatemala, in Korea, in New York….” He took a deep breath and then started to chew on his bracelets, agitated by something although Adam wasn’t entirely sure what. He started to mumble against his wrist, until Adam gently took his second hand into his as well, holding them both between them. Their eyes met as he whispered, "Five hours. Three if  _I’m_  driving.”

“What is?” Adam ran his thumbs over Ronan’s palms, feeling the lines and the wear of a farmboy’s hands.

"The distance between the Barns and your school.” He was blushing.

That was not what he expected, and even in the dark he could see the color shifting around Ronan’s features, softening him. Adam twitched a smile as he squeezed both of Ronan’s hands. “You looked it up?”

“Didn’t you?”

One of the first things he did when he was accepted, but that was beside the point. They didn’t talk much about what was going to happen when he left, and Adam thought it was Ronan’s way of coping with the fact, by pretending it wasn’t happening at all. Clearly he misread that, glad to have done so.

"So am I expected weekly visits or—?”

“Fuck, Parrish.” Ronan stole one of his hands back to swipe it across his features, trying to smooth out the naked honesty on his face, rub the flush from his cheeks. “I’ve got a life, you know. Opal and those cows I’m still trying to fix. My life does not revolve around your ass.”

Adam cackled and Ronan blushed harder. “My  _ass_ ,” he said back at him.

"Sh- shut up.” The conversation was sobering, but not enough, and Ronan stammered peeling away. He moved to give his back to Adam, both hands at his face. "Fuck. I worded it– Fuck you.”

“Mm, yes I think we’ve already established that’s what’s on your mind.”

At once Ronan was frowning at him, brow furrowing deep. For a moment Adam thought he was going to get angry, lips curled in just the right way, the frustration ever present. Instead he turned again to throw up on the grass.

“Oh my god.” He stepped forward, then stopped. “Ronan? You ok?”

“I’ll be—” He retched. “I’ll be fine. Ugh.”

His protests were unconvincing when matched with the second bout of nausea that appeared to ripple through him, sending him bowling over again. Adam came closer, gently rubbing a hand at his back.

“Maybe you’re getting too old to drink so much,” he offered, playfully. Ronan groaned up at him and managed to flip him off without looking up, still bent over facing away. Adam’s hand continued to move in circular motions at his back, slow enough he could feel him shiver under his hand.

“Hey, why did you drink tonight?” he said, trying for casual so it didn’t seem like he was demanding. "Is it because I’m going away in a couple months? You know I’m coming back, right? This….” He sighed, and Ronan stood straight, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. They’ve said it before, their feelings for each other, but it still wasn’t completely easy like he witnessed it was for some people. They were getting there, slowly but surely. Even so, he had to struggle not to shy his eyes. Ronan’s were full of promise, no longer glazed over from the alcohol. “This means a lot to me. You mean a lot to me. An entire ocean could be between us and that wouldn’t change. I’ll always come back, for you and Opal. The three of us, it’s a given.”

It was starting to get cold, or maybe that was just Adam, and he shivered as they continued to stare at one another in this unbroken silence. Ronan’s face was naked with want, his eyes speaking volumes, and his mouth opened to voice them when there was a honking of a horn. Together they both jumped, turning to see Opal in the driver’s seat pushing at the wheel. She honked again.

Ronan let out a small groan. “Do you think your dorm allows satyr children?” he asked.

Adam laughed. “I’m sure we can find a way to sneak her in,” he said.

“I’m going to miss you,” said Ronan, no amusement left in his words.

This was serious as a heart attack, Adam knew, and while he was going to miss him too he couldn’t help but remain a little playful. “That’s why they invented video calls,” he said, something Ronan was adamant about never doing, even though he was sure Opal would bring him around to it after one day apart. He may have bribed her.

“It’s not the same,” said Ronan, utterly unimpressed with his teasing.

“Which part?” Adam smiled. “The talking or the sex?”

Ronan blushed hard, the exact reaction Adam wanted. He poked him gently in the chest, letting his hand linger there at the center of his shirt, feeling him breathing against his palm.

“That’s why they invented phone sex, too,” he said, and Ronan was struggling to reply. “Get with the program, Lynch. Join the twenty-first century.”

“I regret ever starting this conversation.”

Adam had to bite down on his lip to keep from smiling any wider than he already was.

"Come on.” He dragged Ronan gently by the pull of his shirtfront. "Time to go home.”

When he said it like that it was startling how at home he really was with them. Opal and Ronan were his home. What a strange, beautiful life he had built for himself. What a strange, beautiful life they were building together.

**Author's Note:**

> you can also find this on my [tumblr](http://cabeswatergreywaren.tumblr.com/post/150656702844/things-you-said-when-you-were-drunk)
> 
> thanks for reading! feel free to leave a comment here or on tumblr :)


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